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Robert Pattinson shares a few freewheeling details -- you listening, John Mayer?

February 15, 2010 | 12:05
pm

In the March issue of Details magazine, cover boy Robert Pattinson steps right up to what could've been the edge of John Mayer territory -- then cleverly walks away from that line, demonstrating that it's possible to discuss lady parts, man parts, porn and more without ending up thrown to the media wolves.

One tip: Don't run your mouth for years in advance like some sort of new-age, "meta-aware," cooler-than-all-of-us Twitter prophet.

Some other takeaway guidelines we gleaned from reading the interview:

-- If you say you want to snort something, let it be wasabi peas, not Jessica Simpson.

-- If someone's going to use an old-fangled word for black people, let it be the interviewer, not you.

-- It's OK to mention your man parts as long as you don't ascribe political beliefs to them.

-- If you're going to discuss porn, discuss the quaintness of '80s porn compared with the no-holds-barred smut fest that's available now, rather than relishing the fact that you can see 300 anonymous private parts online before you get out of bed in the morning.

-- If you're going to admit that sudden fame (and the attendant gabillions of interviews that come with something like "The Twilight Saga") gave you a sense that you had "a responsibility to be fascinating," rather than attempting to be fascinating for fascinating's sake -- or as some would say, embarking on a "quest to be clever" -- draw a parallel to an interest you once had in becoming a political speech writer. Which is sort of fascinating.

-- If you in the past possessed mad confidence, and admit to it, show that
you now realize some folks might know more about some things (say, your career choices) than you might: "[Y]ou have to figure out whether the way you think at 19 or 20 has
any value. And eventually I understood, with all that control, which
was probably illusory, I wasn't progressing. So now I'm relinquishing a
bit."

-- Tell endearing stories about experiences with elephants.

-- Talk about how much you love your dog.

-- And, finally, don't kiss and tell.

"As an actor," he tells the magazine, "you can elevate the human condition or cheapen it. I
would assume it's the same with anything you do -- you try to elevate and
maybe someday you will."